In the dark alley, the faint reflection of the armor's movement was entangled with a deeper and denser fog.
In an instant, the gray mist condensed into a figure and stopped at the end of the alley. The friction of armor also stopped, and the heavy footsteps stepped on the puddles on the ground that were not yet dry, making a soft sound like a reminder.
"Death knell?"
"That was indeed your death knell."
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a flash of sword light, and Schiller instantly disappeared on the spot and reappeared behind the figure.
"Who is your employer?"
"You don't need to know that."
"It seems that you are very confident in your professional skills."
Schiller dodged two more darts, then faced the death knell and said:
"You shouldn't have killed me."
"I can kill anyone as long as someone pays the starting price."
Schiller stretched out his hand, and a flame ignited in his hand.
"Whoever your employer is, they're paying you the wrong price."
Deathstroke was silent for less than a second, then turned and left.
"Indeed, goodbye."
“How would you deal with an employer who cheated on you?”
"It depends."
"Kill him and I'll pay."
"You don't have that much money."
“The world’s richest man checks out.”
"goodbye."
Schiller watched the figure in armor disappear at the end of Gotham's streets in a few breaths. He thought that his enemy was indeed capable and could hire Deathstroke to kill him.
Several consecutive flashes consumed Schiller a lot of energy. No car could drive in such a deep alley, so he planned to walk back slowly and call a car to pick him up when he got back to the church.
He turned out of an alley and came to the street. Then he turned back and found that there seemed to be some movement in the deepest part of the street.
At this time, Batman was standing in an extremely shabby, dark and narrow room.
The environment here is very bad. Batman has never been in such an uncomfortable room in his life.
This is a third-floor building, the windows are all nailed shut, all the outer layers of the walls are peeling off, the room is extremely damp, the floor is made of greasy stone tiles, all the furniture is not where it should be, and the rest The place is full of all kinds of garbage.
When the owner of the house saw Batman, the uninvited guest, he was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head, looked at his feet, muttered something vague, turned around with a stoop, and picked up a jar of salt shaker. , wanting to hand it to Batman.
Batman took the salt shaker, which was empty, with nothing in it, and the man waved his hand, as if wanting him to leave.
He was a shriveled old man with very dark skin and deep sunken eyes. He walked with a limp and kept mumbling some curse words.
It seemed that the neighbor downstairs heard the commotion and poked his head out from under the stairs and said, "What are you doing with this old guy? Who are you to him?"
"What's up with him?"
"What else can happen? Can't you see? He has Alzheimer's disease and now he doesn't know anyone at all. Even if you know him, he doesn't know you."
The neighbor couldn't see Batman from his perspective, and could only vaguely see a figure. He said: "This old guy can't pay the rent. Every time the landlord comes, he gives salt shakers to people. Maybe he In those days, salt shakers were quite valuable, but there was nothing in that salt shaker.”
"But he was lucky. His landlord seemed to have died at the hands of gangsters. The attic was not worth much. If he killed him, his body would have to be collected, so he is still alive today."
"No matter who you are, it's better to leave him alone. He can only pick up a little garbage thrown down from upstairs to eat every day. However, his upstairs moved out a few days ago, so he probably won't live long."
After saying that, there was a "bang" sound from downstairs, and it was the neighbor closing the door.
Batman held the salt shaker. He watched the rickety old man sit on the chair and looked at the table without saying a word, with a little saliva flowing from the corner of his mouth.
He saw Lewis's hands, which were very rough hands. Almost all the knuckles were a little twisted from years of lifting heavy objects. The blood vessels on the dry palms were clearly visible.
"Are you Louis?"
There was no answer except Batman's own voice.
"Do you remember Thomas Wayne? Do you remember Martha?"
Batman felt his voice tremble.
An extremely angry emotion rose from Batman's chest, and he squeezed the salt shaker until it creaked.
His enemy does not remember all the innocent people he has hurt, he simply forgets all his crimes.
This is not a punishment for him, it just allows him to avoid the blame in his heart, Batman thought.
He asked Louis over and over again:
"Why don't you remember anything?! Do you really not remember the last name Wayne?! What about Edward? Where's Falcone?!"
Just when Batman said the surname Falcone, the aging Louis suddenly let out a weird scream. He opened his mouth wide, and the jaws that had not moved for a long time made a clicking sound.
He trembled and fell off the chair, kept yelling, and threw everything he could pick up at Batman, with tears, snot, and saliva streaming down his face.
Batman saw endless fear on his face.
Batman thought that Falcone didn't lie to him. When he killed Leif, he did scare a lot of people.
This includes Louis.
Schiller walked to the middle of the alley. He looked up and saw that there was only a room on the third floor with lights on, and there was a dark figure with pointed ears in the room.
He stood downstairs and waited for a while, and saw Batman coming out. Batman was a little surprised to see Schiller, but his mind was a little slow now.
Schiller looked at Batman and found that he was not injured and had no signs of fighting with others.
Then his eyes fell on the salt shaker in Batman's hand.
Schiller didn't know what it was, but obviously, Batman, who was feeling complicated now, needed to talk, so before Schiller could ask, Batman told the whole story.
They were chatting and walking. When they passed by the church door, it was almost dawn. Batman held the salt shaker and said:
"He doesn't remember any of this."
When Batman said this, he was no longer angry, but a complex emotion was contained in his tone.
"You said he still remembers someone."
"Yeah, he still remembers Falcone. Why doesn't he remember Wayne, but he remembers Falcone..."
Schiller sighed, looked into the distance, and then said: "Because of fear, because fear is the deepest scar engraved in the depths of the human soul and the most difficult to remove."
"He forgot everything but fear, didn't he?" Batman said.
At this time, it was the darkest moment before dawn. The rich blackness almost swallowed up everything. All the buildings were shrouded in shadow, and the outlines could not be seen clearly.
Soon, what awakened Batman from his thoughts was the heavy bells of Gotham Cathedral. The dull bells spread far and wide, and the sound waves were as pervasive as darkness, even in the darkest and darkest alleys. Feel that tremor.
Batman thought, fear, fear.
If he can no longer complete his true revenge against the events and people of that era, if the murderer he tried his best to catch and the person he wanted to take revenge on have completely forgotten all this, let him All the anger and hatred in his heart was in vain.
Then he at least reminded Batman of one thing, that is, sometimes, what is more terrifying than death is the lingering fear.
In this case, Batman thought, he would become the Dark Knight who would bring endless fear to all criminals in Gotham.
Years ago, the death of his parents was accompanied by the shadows of bats crossing the sky. Many years later, he would eventually bring the fear of bats to all the criminals in the city.
It's like, this Gotham Evening Bell that penetrates into every street and every dark corner.
